What were you like as a kid?

[Raneth]

This is a thread about your childhood-this means under ten. Everyone likes to talk about their childhoods, and its nice to reflect back on it when you're older. So, without further ado, some questions to get people started:

What were you like as a kid? Were you a happy kid, or angry? Did you stand up for yourself? Were you easy to get along with? Did you have a lot of friends or enemies? What kind of things did you like as a kid? What kind of obsessions did you have? What were your hobbies? What kind of games did you play? Did you believe in magic? Do you have any fun or interesting stories?

And, of course, do you think how you acted as a kid reflects who you are now?

I'll start with a few random facts about myself as a kid. I was a major little punk. Not exactly a brat, but I was full of myself and utterly convinced I was always in the right. Pretty typical elementary school "everything revolves around me," mentality. I've grown out of that, thankfully.

I could also be a bully. I got bored easily, and I would pick fights for literally no other reason. Everyone being nice to each other bored me. I still have that tendency, but I recognize it now and suppress it. If I get bored by everyone being nice and not engaging in horrible drama, I'll do something else.

As a bully, I got into a lot of fights. I won most of the fights I got into, save for the time I picked a fight with a guy who was much bigger than me. I lost that one. I deserved it, but it still annoys me that I lost.

I think my biggest problem as a kid-and every kid has this to some degree-is that I had intense emotions and no inhibitory control. I got angry really easily, and could do nothing about it. I remember my brother pissing me off, and I raised my hand to hit him. My mother told me something along the lines of "if you hit him, you will be punished/I will do something you don't like." She was staring right at me.

I hit him anyway.


That problem is gone-my emotions now are nowhere near as intense as they were when I was young. I pretty much coast on "neutral" constantly.

As a kid, I had a few friends. I still remember my closest friend in third grade, who when I look back now, probably had an alcoholic mother. Whenever I was over at his house, his mother would be asleep in the bedroom with her door closed, and the house was always filthy. His parents were divorced, and he moved away at the end of the year.

One of my friends and I loved making up stories with action figures and stuffed animals and the like. I think that caused a lot of my interest in writing and creating stories-nothing was more fun than making up a story and a world with the toys you had as a kid. Even our marbles were "actually" a herd of horses or something that lived in the great plains (aka the carpet).

The other friend I had was more of an engineer type. He had really rich parents with a huge yard, and we would make random contraptions-our best one was the "flying machine" which was a backpack attached to a rope slung over a tree limb. One of us would put on the backpack, the other would pull the rope. We basically "invented" a pulley that got the other person five inches or so off the ground and really hurt their shoulders.

Another good friend of mine I met at camp. We decided that since the girl's bathroom had "Bloody Mary," we had "Bloody Ben," and we would discover the secret of Bloody Ben. He was also the friend who locked a bunch of girls in the bathroom when they went in to summon Bloody Mary. I still remember them screaming and banging on the door to get out. It was mean, but so damn hilarious.

Anyway, that's enough from me. What about you guys?

[TNHawke]

Ooo Ooo! Me next!

I was a geek. Or maybe just a dork. I was never one of the popular kids. I was usually one of the outcasts. I was always among the last 5 picked for any 'team' thing in school. Always. I may not have had a lot of friends, but I had GOOD friends. Because we were outcasts together and we didn't care.
I was the protector of our group. Sure, I was an outcast, and I got teased and bullied, but mostly, it didn't bother me much (at least, not after 2nd grade when I started going by my initials instead of my given name, which I hated- and was a huge source of teasing). Sometimes I would tear up, but usually I was good about ignoring it and walking away. However, if someone teased one of my friends? WATCH OUT! That was when I would come unglued on the bully's head! I only ever got into trouble for a couple of fights, none of which I started, all of which I fully intended to finish, most of which were interrupted by teachers.
I used to get into trouble falling out of my chair at school. Pure attention getter... NO idea why I did it. But the one time that I really remember falling out of my chair, probably the last time, it was a total accident! I was SO mad when I got in trouble for that one.
I didn't do great in school, but looking back, I think I was just really bored. Structured classroom, sit still and pay attention just never worked for me. A doctor once said I was probably ADD, but Mom refused to medicate me, and just disciplined me more. I think it worked. Eventually, I learned self control and how to focus when I have to.
I remember already knowing how to read by the time I got into Kindergarten. I had a lot of books at home. I had an extremely active imagination and was always making up games with my toys, and frequently playing "let's pretend".
For every chance I got to make a wish, and often while praying, I would ask for the ability to fly. Never happened. Still miffed about that. Stupid Santa Claus. :: kicks him ::
Prior to 3rd grade, I mostly played with stuffed animals and art supplies, although I had lots of other stuff like big Duplo Legos. Then, My Little Pony came out, and I lived and breathed those. I still have most of my Pony collection! These are the original ones from the 1980s! However, my favorite cartoon, the thing I liked to pretend to be was Transformers.
Mmmm... I miss Saturday Morning Cartoons.

I guess I've rambled enough now. That was a nice little trip down Memory Lane.

[TxCat]

I was...peculiar. By the time I was three years old, I could already read and understand adult books and conversations. Some of the finer nuances which one gains only with growing older and getting more experience escaped me, but I easily grasped most of it. Typical children's games and books bored me; my Ma tried with no success whatsoever to divert me with Golden Books and PlaySchool people and Weebles but the next time she turned around, I'd be sitting in a corner with my thick glasses falling down my nose and one finger following the lines in a book of classic literature, one of my Pa's medical texts, or some other thing that by rights no three year old ought to have. I spoke articulately, in full sentences, as though I'd eaten an unabridged Webster's dictionary; there was no baby talk (my first word was a swear, though, in front of the parson!)

I did like stuffed animals and I had plenty of those, though to my Ma's dismay they were usually accompanied by one of those medical books, a pair of scissors, staples, rubber bands, thumb tacks, and whatever else I could use to emulate surgery. If you guessed none of my childhood playthings made it through in very good shape, you'd be right. I didn't like destroying things, but I wanted to see how they worked and in my early days (before the brain damage took my ability to do most math and science) I wanted to be a veterinarian.

My peers bored me. Since my Pa was in the army, we traveled a lot and I'd been all over the world by the time I was ten years old. Sometimes even the teachers would accuse me of lying about where I'd been, the things I'd seen, and even whether or not such places existed. It got so that it wasn't unusual for my Ma and Pa to be called to school regularly. I eventually got the idea that public education was something I had to deal with and they supplemented my learning at home with educational materials more to my tastes.

I never did watch much television and to this day I hate most cartoons and sit coms. I had piles and piles of books --- all I wanted in most subjects I requested --- to read.

I also had a moderately retarded younger sister to look after. I wouldn't have admitted it then, but the time we spent together building huge Lego and Tinker Toy cities for our People and Weebles to live in were some of the best times I can recall. Sometimes Pa brought home butcher paper which we would spread across the floor and draw on. We drew rolly-poly (potato bug) cities and told stories about the creatures which lived there.

I never stooped to being a bully because my Pa taught me early on that if you have to settle your disagreements with your fists, you've already lost and you'd better make sure that your first punch is your only one. However, I was pretty much a stuffy, disagreeable little ass. Since I knew more and had more experience in the world, I thought most of my more settled classmates ignorant and unsophisticated and I wasn't above telling them that. I had a thing about showing my legs (something I've retained to this day) and so the dresses I wore (and I insisted on dresses, but not frilly Victorian looking things) never went above mid calf. Most of the time, if I could get away with it, I wore pants and shirts (not blouses). If my hair got too long, I hacked at it with a pair of scissors so that it forced either Ma or Pa to take me to the base barber and get it evened out. Smiling? Not something I did. Every photo we have of me under age ten looks like I swallowed the sourest lemon possible.

Um...this is kind of embarrassing. I don't guess I was really someone anyone wanted to know and I'm not sure much has changed. Ack!

[whitewolf200056]

As a child, I believe I was quite similar then as I am now. Not much has changed, though I no longer pretend to be a wolf...

I was always quiet. I'd always sit in the corner. I wouldn't talk to anyone. The friends I had always had to make the first effort. It's still the same for me. I don't speak much, nor do I start conversations with people. They have to instigate them.

I'd always be content to lie on the grass and just watch the sky. This is half true now. I am content to lie on a trampoline or chair and look at the sky but not on the grass. (bugs)

I still hold many of the same views I did then as well. I was never a bully, but I did get bullied a couple years. Eventually people just backed off though. The only time, same then as is now, that I would ever get angry and fight back was if someone I cared about was hurt.

I'd be content to sit in my room with my many books and read. It's paid off. I can now read 1000 words a minute.

I also had one of the biggest wolf collections you could imagine, I still do. Blankets. Towels. Books. Cups. Plates. Everything. I'm not kidding.

Although, I do miss my childhood. There wasn't much need for responsibility. Now that I'm living on my own for the first time I wish I could go back.

[Kamoodle]

Not much about me has changed over the years. I am a young adult now, however, the personality that still lingers about me feeling like a kid is still there. It may be because much of my life so far was in the hands of a kid, and I always enjoyed it.

The one thing that undoubtedly hasn't changed is the fact I'm nearsighted. It wasn't until I was around seven years old that I got my first glasses. Before then, I remembered it was difficult to see things, and yet, being as I thought it was normal to not see well, I didn't say much of anything. I had to squint because squinting does very briefly help with giving me a slightly stronger sight before going back to normal. If I wanted to see something, I'd have to move my head really close to the subject unti I can see it clearly. I can remember one of the things I saw one night in the hallway was one of those pill bugs on the floor. Everything changed once I got some glasses and I can finally see.

Speaking of pill bugs, they were my favorite bugs at the time I was a kid. I remembered bringing one to class and hiding it inside my empty box of crayons but got into trouble when the teacher and some kids found out, which did unfortunately end the life of that poor little thing. Over time, every time I found one, I keep it for only a little while at home before letting them be outside again. I never knew what they eat.

My biggest experience was having my tonsils and adenoids removed when I was six. I remembered before then, I always woke up early for school with a completely dried-up mouth because I could not breathe through my nose at all. It was not a satisfying feeling, but again like with my nearsighted dilemma, I thought this was normal. To wake up and then taking a minute to soak up my mouth again with my saliva. At the day of the operation, I was given a gas to be knocked out so the doctors can remove my tonsils. I remembered the gas did smell like a bubble gum but I was a bit curious as to why I am starting to feel sleepy. Next thing I knew, I was having dreams about rainbows streaking through my dream world. At the same time, I did hear something. Someone that said something along the lines of, "Piece of cake." Now that I look at it, my dad's guess to that would have been one of the doctors said that because my tonsils were gigantic. So, it must've been pretty easy for them to remove my tonsils. Then I woke up sitting on a wheelchair being brought back into my patient's room where my parents were waiting, and the first time I swallowed, it felt sore in my throat. I did not cry at all but it was an unpleasant feeling. For however long it took, I forgot how long it took for the pain to go away, I had to eat soft foods. Thing that were cold like ice cream was a very good idea for the soreness.

[SleepySpaceDad]

I'm twelve though I'll share about earlier.

I was and am the weird one in my class. I'm a tomboy and liked hanging out with the guys( I still have a crush one of them). The girls were and are mean to me although I'm in Christian school. I wanted to be boy for a bit so I could get out wearing skirts and dresses(they're evil). But now I've accepted that God made me a girl for a reason. My favorite toys were MLP and Legos especially Knights Kingdom and bionicles. I used to fight and wrestle with the guys for fun cause it was fun to and I liked getting stronger physicality. I am and was smart and could do algebra in 1st grade. I love animals. I've always been fascinated by them so my parents got me animal encyclopedia when I was and I still have although it has pen marks and been ripped a lot.

And that is my unorganized childhood.

[Yunyi]

I was known as "the smart kid". I still have fond memories of finishing a worksheet first or sitting out all the spelling tests because I had aced the pretests while everyone else had to take them. xD But it's really only because I read a ton, so my spelling and grammar were naturally going to be better than those of my peers. Sadly, by the time I got to 8th grade, I had started getting lazier and lazier. By this school year (11th grade) my grades had dropped a ton. :/

Anyway, as in elementary school I was pretty quiet and mostly kept to myself and my books. xD I only had a few close friends, but two of them were a grade up and my best friend wasn't in my class. The four of us had been brought together by our love for Harry Potter. :'D And... this is kind of embarrassing to admit, but we'd play Harry Potter all the time. Two of my friends were "Harry's sisters" (OCs ftw?), one was McGonagall, and I was... Crookshanks. Hahahaha. Those characters are so random and don't even have anything to do with each other... and I don't know why I liked being Crookshanks.

I did a lot of pretend playing when I was younger, come to think of it... even though somehow I'm not really interested in roleplaying anymore at all. I remember playing horses and riders (based off of the Pony Pals series xD), which spawned my love of horses, and Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, which I watched in kindergarten on Cartoon Network.

To be honest, I think the reason why I didn't have a lot of close friends in elementary school is because I didn't have a whole lot of people to relate to and feel totally comfortable around. And I think part of the reason for that is because there weren't a whole lot of Asian kids at my school, and only two girls in my grade that I can remember. One hung out with the preppy white kids, and the other annoyed me because she was kind of an attention-seeker and I honestly thought she was kind of dumb. :/ (Not that I specifically thought, "I want to be friends with Asian kids"; in fact, race wasn't even something I noticed at this age. This is stuff I've realized over the years, why I didn't feel comfortable and why I somehow naturally gravitated towards other Asian kids in middle school. Somehow it all just happened without me really realizing or understanding why).

When I got to middle school I made a lot more friends. Fell in with the Asian crowd (as there were more from the other elementary schools), but also made friends outside of that group. Somehow it was much easier in middle school. I hate to say it, but I think part of the reason is because we were separated into honors classes, you know? And just somehow I communicated better with the kids in these classes than I had with the kids in my elementary school classes. It's not anything I consciously noticed back then, but looking back on it I really think that that's part of the reason. And I also have realized just how unhappy and boring my elementary school years were (at least grades 3-5; that's when I changed schools and somehow things just never fell in place), especially when compared to my middle school years. I know a lot of people say they hated middle school, but I definitely enjoyed it.

That's when I started changing a lot, I think. I had always been pretty quiet, but now I'm pretty outspoken and have kind of a bad temper. xD;; Now I'm much less tolerant than I used to be and get annoyed very easily, especially by people who I think are being stupid or do stupid things. I care much less about other people's opinions of me than I used to, and when I don't like someone I usually make it pretty clear. I don't want to bother trying to be nice to someone who I just don't like. Probably a bad way to go through life, but I kind of have a lot of pride and it somehow feels demeaning for me to be fake nice to someone I don't like. If I disagree with you about something I feel strongly about, then I'm going to say it.

Yeah, when I was younger I always tried to be extra nice to everyone because I was scared of what they'd think of me; I'm sure I got played a few times, but that's not happening anymore. xD; I used to be so obedient, too... paranoid of doing something different the way someone told me to do it... but not anymore. And it's really so much easier living this way. I was the "perfect child" to parents and teachers. Not anymore though. For better or for worse (my mom obviously thinks it's worse), I'm not that same seemingly sweet little kid anymore. :>

[Reuth]

I am only seventeen now, so 'childhood', as determined by this thread, ended just seven years ago.
But oh, how I have changed...
I definitely used to be shy and anti-social to the point of aspergers on the social spectrum. I mean no offense to those with the condition (which I absolutely do not see as a disability) when I say this. I quite enjoyed my childhood, playing on my own with toy animals (Barbies? No, ma'am) and stuffies. Now and again I'd get together with the neighbourhood kids and hit up the gulley, a small tree-ridden valley just across the road from my house, behind another row of houses. It seemed so much bigger then.
The gulley was my playground, where I went to think, to hide out in the 'hobbit hole', a dug out one of my older brothers made in his teenage years. I still run there when I'm in a mood and need to calm down.
I was smarter then. I knew to keep to myself, but to be kind. To be open and optimistic. But not too open. I thanked people profusely, said sorry and please too often. Only spoke when spoken to, though I had many incredible ideas and views that showed in my writing.
I was smart - clever, even - and knew how to appear the good girl in times of crisis, though if my little sister was involved I was always found guilty and given a spank.
One time I recall I was at the bus stop after school. A young boy, a grade below me, was mocking my best friend, Christopher, for something. I made a point of giving him a good shove into the snow, which he countered with a hit that I passed back to him. He then took the fight a step further and socked me hard in the face. I fell, stunned and angry, but instead of leaping up and fighting more like I wanted to do (and had learned to do with my brothers), I burst into tears. Of course a teacher saw and raced the perpetrator and I to the office... where I convinced the principal I had done nothing wrong and got off scotch-free. Poor kid got a detention.
That's not to say I was a horrible kid. I wasn't. Getting in trouble just terrified me. I know I should have apologized, but I didn't and now I look back and laugh. At least it gave me a story to tell, right?

[BradTheMad]

I was the child nobody knew what to do with, except for my dad because I swear I am his clone!

Adults didn't like me because I was smarter than them and not a fun kid to play with as I never much cared about normal toys. Well, except for Transformers and my He-man but they were my collection and not toys to knock around or bash against each other. I preferred playing with my Dad with Lego and building our own futuristic cityscape. It was carefully planned with actual drawn designs, we spend days just thinking up designs that would work IRL.
I did watch cartoons but they were actually for an older audience(I was way too young for the first Transformers when it first aired as it was geared towards teens) and I fondly recall Dr. Who and Star Trek. My mom remembers me being only two years old and watching Star Trek, actually fascinated by it and not being distracted for one moment.

I started talking really young and not just talking, every language I had seen on tv. My dad frequently watched German television as he is fluent in most Germanic languages and I simply picked it up. Some languages kind of faded over time but to this day I still know eight so that's more than most.

I was a bookworm also. I still have my very first privately owned book I got which was from my dad about the universe. At my parent's house, and now my own, there is an extensive library of knowledge about almost every topic you can think of and anyone visiting is free to browse(if you treat the books well though). I therefore didn't really need my "own books" but I told my parents I wanted to start my own collection.
So at age eight I got not a kid's book but one from my dad's collection. It was a bit too much in some chapters but I think it cost me a month or so to figure everything out. I remember how proud my dad was hearing me not only talk about wormholes and black holes(which were still pretty new theories then) but also adding my own thoughts to them.
I hated school and the stupid books they read there. I do like fantasy and sci-fi but all they had were silly "adventure" stories that were way below my level. I remember class-reading and that I had read the whole book through whilst others were still stuck at the first few pages because they didn't get a word or something.
When we visited the library with the whole class at age ten and were told to get a good story book I wandered off to the adult section and grabbed Lord of the Rings. The teacher just snorted and made some comments about me being way too stupid for that I just had to read and show her I wasn't stupid. For some reason most of my teachers thought I was actually retarded because I wasn't socializing.
I zipped through LotR it in two weeks time and loved it. Understanding it? For crying out loud the book isn't hard at all, just slow at the beginning(Elrond's council drags on and on) and with some archaic words but far from hard.

Children of my own age bored me to tears or were much too "aggressive" (extrovert) for me. They thought I was autistic and so much so they wanted to send me off to a special needs school after which my mom had a good long talk with the school. I am not autistic, just was way too smart for them and being introverted does not automatically equal autism.

I remember interrupting teachers if they didn't make sense. I recall when I was 15 I interrupted my physics teacher because he made a mistake and he yelled "if you are so great why not come up here and teach the class yourself?", which I promptly did. He only got more angry and sent me out of the classroom.

Despite showing I was far more intelligent than most I was still called stupid, retarded even because I kept to myself. At one point I just gave up and didn't even try anymore. I never studied anymore and finally started to get regular grades and "friends" which just bored me with their talk of relationships, going out and whatnot.
First of all I didn't care about that stuff at all and second my health was way too bad to enjoy those simple things. It cost me way too much energy and it was only a lot later that I was into the Industrial and Goth scene where almost all nerds seem to end up anyway...
I had been told I wasn't going to live past 15 so I did what I thought was important; gather knowledge about the universe around me. Know what was going on and being able to do something about it.

Except for watching some cartoons and collecting toys I wasn't really a child. Going outside to the playground filled me with dread. If my mom wanted me to play outside I actually went to the farm nearby to help the farmer with taking care of his animals. I so loved nature and felt an instant click with animals that I missed with people.
I also helped my dad with his sea aquarium and bird collection though his aquarium was something of a holy relic to him and I wasn't allowed to actually touch it until I was twelve. I got my own pet turtles ate age six as I was old enough to understand the responsibility taking care of pets by then though I needed physical help to keep their tank clean. I remember sitting down before we went and actually got them, making a care and feeding schedule.

I actually didn't change much except that I do have a lot of friends now who are the same as me. I've become a little more extroverted through my volunteering where I help other people with disabilities, my own exotic pet store a few years back and my chameleon breeding program. No matter how much you like animals if you get into the animal trade and breeding programs you will have to automatically deal with humans also...eek!
Also, all my friends from my religious community pretty much have the same background as me. Brainiacs unite! I know I was a "weird child" for the majority of this planet but I'm not at all embarrassed by it. I'm proud of it actually.

[LittleFireCat]

As a child, I was the klutzy know-it-all that few seemed to like. I spent almost all my free time by myself, as I was unable to make friends. My mother had little time for me, as she had to tend to my older autistic-spectrum brother, and my father couldn't be bothered parenting. If I wasn't watching documentaries on tv, I had my nose burried in a book (usually an encyclopedia or dictionary), or was doing puzzles. I remember that one of my favourate shows on tv was called Operation, and it was litteraly a show that was real medical operations being preformed for the camera. No fuzzied out parts, or scenes cut. I was watching that from the age of four, my mother couldn't stomach it but I loved it. I also had a major passion for animals as a child and had a very large collection of stuffed animals.

My earliest memories are from the age of three, the first is of a doctor's appointment. My mother was concerned about the fact that I fell down far too often in her oppinion. The doctor did the eye exam with a chart that had "E"'s facing in different directions, the cart wasn't in the exam room itself. On the way back to the exam room, I did a face plant. I didn't cry or run to my mom, I just deturmaned that I wasn't hurt, got up and continued on my way. I remember my mother remarking "that's what I'm talking about! Why does she keep doing that?!"

The other is of being in school, I started junior Kindergarten when I was three. It was a half day, daycare-like program designed to get children used to being away from home. In my area if a child was 4 by January 1st they started JK that school year (instead of having to be four in September to start). Lucky me just made it into the last year of the program. I was by far the youngest in the class (the rest of the kids in the class were either 4 already or turned 4 by October), and very much looked it. Not a good start. The memory I have is of sitting by myself reading while the other children played together. The teacher came over and asked if I wanted to be read to; I started reading to her. The book in question was an early reader one, with two short sentances per page. The teacher looked at me like I'd grown a second head. I'm guessing I was the only one in the class that could read. I have no idea where I learned to read, certainly not from either of my parents, my mother wouldn't have had time and my father couldn't be bothered. I wasn't around my grandparents often enough, or any other extended family for that matter.

As I got older, I got used to that look from teachers. It was either that look or one of frustration. I remember in grade two, one of my teachers (I had two that year because one had maturnity leave half way through the year) played a video for us, and had questions to answer after as a class. I only sort of paid attention to the video, just enough to know that there wasn't anything I didn't already know in it. In fact, it was more than a bit below my level. I was in the back of the class reading throughout the video and question answering. The teacher probably figured she'd teach me a lesson about paying attention when she called on me to answer a question. Not only did I answer the question she asked me to answer, but other three on the board as well, and with far more detail than what the video gave. She never called on me to answer questions again all year, even if I raised my hand to answer them.

The other kids in my class never seemed to like me, and to be honest, I didn't care. I couldn't be bothered with them, we had nothing in common. All they seemed to talk about were cartoons they watched on tv, some children's book series or other, or dolls/trucks. None of which I was interested in.

The teachers (other than my grade three teacher) all seemed to resent having me in the class. I messed up their teaching plan, I think. My grade three teacher was the only one who seemed to like me, at least a bit. I never got the same work as the other kids from her, I know that with for a fact. She gave me work for older grades. I asked her once why she gave me different work, and she said it was because she wanted to see what I would do with it. I don't think I ever dissapointed her.

My report cards always said the same thing: very bright but doesn't apply herself; doesn't socialize well. Turns out the reason they didn't think I applied myself is because I coudn't spell. Which is due to dyslexia, that I was never given any help or support with in school. I couldn't get stuff on paper, and they thought it was me being lazy.

I also had problems with social anxiety disorder and depression as a child, and was prone to outbursts of anger and fits of crying with little to no provication. I was placed in a special education class for a couple years because of these issues, as the school thought the smaller classes would help. Although the smaller classes did help my emotional problems, I still didn't have a teacher who knew what to do with me academicly. She wasn't used to 'advanced' kids. This pretty well brings me to the age of ten.

I have few friends now, but I'm still ackward in social situations. I developed a fearce independant streak early in childhood, that I still feel I have now. Though, I will admit that after developing trust in my husband I have come to rely on him a great deal for support. I still have a deep love for animals, and want to go back to school to study them. I'm thinking herpetologist.